Restoring UK’s peatlands, forests and grasslands ‘vital’ for tackling climate crisis, report says

Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Scientists said that Britain’s water-logged peatlands were “superheroes of the natural world” – covering just 10 per cent of the country’s surface but storing around three billion tonnes of carbon. And when they’re damaged, they stop being stores of carbon and instead become sources.” open image in gallery A degraded peatland in Yorkshire Ongoing destruction of the UK’s peatlands is currently causing around 23 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent to be released each year – a figure roughly equal to 5 per cent of the country’s total emissions, the report says. “We see there’s plenty of opportunity to expand those woodlands by planting around the outskirts of them with native trees.By doing that, we can make those more resilient to climate change, we can increase our capacity to look after biodiversity and important, if we all public access, we can create human wellbeing benefits.” Boris Johnson has pledged to plant 30,000 new trees every year by 2025 as part of efforts to reach the country’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. “Nature-based solutions complement, but they’re not an alternative, to things like drastic carbon emissions cuts and other measures to protect biodiversity,” said Prof Rick Stafford, a conservation biologist and lead author of the marine chapter of the report.